Altitude and tiny climbers

I just finished writing an article for The Trail Running Club about training to run races at altitude when you live close to sea level. I’ll put a link to it if they decide to post it. It took me forever to write it. I felt like I was back in college painfully piecing together a paper on the role of chaplains in the Vietnam War. (Road trip to Bayonne, NJ in a rented convertible Mustang for that research. I swear.) I’ve taught about altitude illness for years, but somehow writing about it in the context of ultrarunning froze my brain screen. I did stumble on a fun critique of the “Elevation Training Mask” and the “PowerLung” and a “60 Minutes” interview with Michael Phelps (which briefly mentioned how he slept in an oxygen tent and otherwise added another 14 minutes to my article writing.)

In any event, I’ve got to move onto other projects before I turn into a pumpkin.

Today’s climbing trip out to Enchanted Rock. Two peas in a pod. Pigs in mud. Etc.

It was an WONDERFUL climb. Asa picked up the fundamentals more quickly and thoroughly than most college-age students. I predict I’ll get a lot of grief from him in future over the detail that I’m the one wearing climbing shoes – that at 4 years old I already had to take the handycap.